[Drop-head title:] LETTER, No. 1. To the Editor of the Naval & Military Gazette. [LETTER, No. 2. To the Editor of the Naval & MIlitary Gazette. "The Duke and the Storming of Towns."] [LETTER, No. 3. (Confidential.) 26th August, 1839.]

12mo (leaf dimensions 22.5 x 14 cm): 12 pp paginated [3] to 14. Lacking (presumed) title-leaf. Unstitched, and consisting of one sheet of paper, 45 x 28 cm, folded twice to make four leaves; and one half sheet, 22.5 x 28 cm, folded to make two leaves. Text clear and entire, on heavily aged and spotted paper chipped at extremities. In an attempt to defend a perceived attack on his honour, W. D. B. prints, with commentary, three letters written by him to the editor of the Naval and Military Gazette, only the first of which was published (6 August 1839). The subject of the correspondence is the Duke of Wellington's 'comparison of the late RIOTS at BIRMINGHAM to the storm of a town'. Spurred on by the editor's response, in which he states 'we suspect W. D. B. to be a very young Subaltern', the author writes again, but the editor states that he will only publish the second letter if the author will 'in confidence give his real name, and the name of any Officer of reputation, who served in the Peninsula, and gainsays the remarks to which his Letter refers'. In his third confidential letter W. D. B. gives 'a short account of how long and where I had served' and cites military authorities to support his position, but despite this the editor 'objected to publish [the second letter] on the score of its length', and W. D. B. leaves 'the entire question to be decided by the public, (whether civil, or military,)'. Scarce: no copy of any item with similar title for 1839 or 1840 in the British Library, on COPAC or on WorldCat.